Authenticity working title
by Andruindel
Summary: Kei has no memory of a family, a home, or a life before she came to live with Maes Hughes. Her past is filled with mystery and the shadow of Laboratory Five, but Maes is determined to help her figure out who she is.  rated for nothing, yet.


What had started as a dim, cloudy day had devolved into a night of heavy rain, perforated by flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. It was a terrible night to be out and about. Too bad Maes Hughes had been working late and was only now driving home.

The tall, dark-haired man was nearly asleep at the wheel. To keep himself awake, he let his thoughts wander to his current life situation. He was almost twenty-two years old. It was about time he started thinking about settling down to start a family. The whole idea of starting a family sounded wonderful to him. He'd always thought so. He just didn't want to really think about it until things in Ishbal were finally over. The war was still going on; really he was only in Central for a few months. No doubt he'd be deployed again soon.

Suddenly, a flash of movement in the dark, rainy street caught Maes attention. A girl dashed blindly into the street in front of him; Maes slammed on the brakes; the girl froze in the middle of the road, like a deer caught in the headlights. For a few heart-stopping seconds he careened toward the girl, tires skidding on the wet pavement. Glad he had been paying at least some attention, Maes sat for a long minute in the stopped car, heart pumping, only a bare foot from the girl.

For a long minute he stared at her, and she stared at the car. And then, as though all life had left her, she collapsed. Reacting instantly, Maes opened the car door and sprang out into the night. A flash of lightning lit up the night for a split second, but he hardly noticed as he approached the girl. She sat in the middle of the road where she had fallen when her knees had apparently given out on her. The road was covered in a layer of water, but she hardly seemed to notice. She barely even reacted when Maes knelt down beside her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright? Where are your parents? I m sure they re worried about you!"

The girl finally lifted her eyes to his face, and he stared. He had seen eyes like that before, but never on a person so young. Usually those eyes, empty and haunted, were seen on war veterans. People who had seen and done horrible things. No child should have eyes like that...

"Where are your parents?" Maes asked again.

This time, the girl answered. "I don t know... I can t remember..."

When the sun rose next morning, there was only a minimal change in the lighting to indicate that morning was coming. Maes woke with a start as a clap of thunder crashed right over head. There was no rumbling, so he assumed lightning must have struck somewhere very close. And then he realized that he had woken up. That meant he must have dozed off at some point.

After spending a long time convincing the girl that she was safe and that it was okay to get in the car with him, he had spent another hour or so getting her into bed and to sleep. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to for a complete stranger, but there was no way Maes Hughes would leave a young girl alone in the streets in the middle of the night. In the rain, no less! Still, the girl was a complete mystery to him. No matter how often he asked her or how many different questions he asked, she seemed not to remember anything. She couldn t tell him her name, where she was from, or even how old she was. If he'd had to guess, Maes would have said she looked roughly fifteen years old about seven years younger than he was.

As Maes sat up and stretched, he glanced toward the bedroom. The girl had refused to go to sleep without leaving the door open. He wasn't sure why. He could see through the partially open door that she was still lying in bed, but her eyes were open.

"Are you awake?" He called, twisting around to pop the kinks out of his back.

"Yes..." The girl had an odd habit of keeping her voice extremely low, barely loud enough to be heard.

As Maes stood up, she clambered out of the bed. She also seemed to keep to her feet whenever Maes did. This was an obviously defensive instinct; by staying on her feet she allowed herself that much maneuverability a quick getaway, if you will. Maes didn t know why she was so skittish, but he made sure he kept his distance from her to avoid scaring her any more than she already was.

"Why don t you come out here and I'll make pancakes?"

At the mention of food, the girl perked up immediately. "What are pancakes?"

Maes stared at her. "You don't know what pancakes are?" What sort of girl didn t know what pancakes were? This whole situation was getting weirder and weirder every minute every time the girl opened her mouth, really.

She shrugged self-consciously, apparently aware that she'd said something ridiculous.

"Well... Maes rubbed the back of his neck. I'm sure you'll like them. Why don't you go take a shower, and I'll make breakfast." The girl obediently trotted in the direction Maes pointed her in. After a few minutes, as he got the bowls out and started mixing the pancake batter, he heard the water running. He was just flipping the first batch of pancakes when the girl came back out of the bathroom, her hair dripping and her eyes alert.

"That smells good." She said.

Maes didn t reply. Instead, he just watched out of the corner of his eye as she approached cautiously. She was tiny, very skinny for her age and shorter than average, only about 5'2 . Her hair was fair, and now that it was clean it hung around her face in uneven curtains. As average as her general appearance was, her eyes were equally extraordinary. They were brown and, as he had noticed before, empty and haunted. They were the eyes of a war veteran; there was nothing behind them but caution and fear, when he could see anything past the heavy shields she kept up in order to hide her thoughts. She was light on her feet. Flighty almost. He felt that if he were to make a sudden move she would bolt. After a moment, Maes flipped the pancakes onto a plate and silently held it out to the girl. Like a mistrustful animal she darted forward and snatched the plate out of his hands. As soon as she had the plate in her grasp she darted away again to a safe distance. She slipped around to the far side of the table so that it was between her and him.

Maes sighed. "You don't trust me, do you?" He asked. He turned away from the stove to face her, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms.

"No." Her answer was blunt. "I don't see why I should."

"Well, I am feeding you..." Maes pointed out gently.

"So did they." Her voice faded as she said the words and she lapsed into a thoughtful silence, munching hungrily on the pancakes.

Maes watched her. What had this girl gone through to make her so cautious and reserved? When the pancakes were done and the girl had finished eating, Maes decided it was time to bring up a subject he had been trying to think through. "Look, I think I should probably take you to the hospital. Something's obviously wrong if you can't remember anything." The girl stared at him. Her eyes narrowed, and if she had looked a little happier after eating, she certainly didn't look happy now. Truthfully, Maes thought she looked a little scared. But before he could think of a way to convince her she needed to go, she put her head down and shrugged.

"Okay." She whispered.

Maes considered her for a long minute. There was something definitely odd about this girl. His orders were followed immediately; she did not talk back, and while she seemed to realize that she was relatively safe, there was still something subdued about her. It was like she was terrified of upsetting him. Whatever had happened to the girl, he was determined to figure it out so that he could help her.

lilili

A/N: Hey, guys. Uhm, long time no see? I don't know how many of my readers are still out there waiting for me to pick up my fan fiction again, but for any of you who are, here I am again! I'm actually going to be uploading a different story pretty soon, a Deathnote one, to see which one you guys would rather see me write. I have a few chapters of each written, so I could potentially do both, maybe, if you guys wanted. When I get around to putting the first chapter of that one up, let me know which one you'd rather see written! Anyway, that's really all I have to say. Thanks to everyone who has favorited or reviewed Away From Home any time in the last few years (even years after I finished it!). It means a whole lot to me that you people are still reading and enjoying my stuff :)


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